John 14:7-14
Chapter 14
Philip asked him:
“LORD, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus said to him:
“I have been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever sees me sees the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? All that I say to you, I do not say of myself. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do.
Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in me will do the same works that I do. They will even do greater things than these because I am going to the Father.
Everything you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Indeed, whatever you ask in my name, I will do it.
Commentaries
Jesus, the Way to the Father
This chapter explores a mysterious pattern of Jesus going and returning: going to the Father only to reappear to his disciples and stay with them forever. The text in the Fourth Gospel reveals that Jesus never truly leaves or disappears; his going to the Father symbolizes a fuller return to his followers. Verse 23 is the chapter’s central point. God’s dwelling among his people, which the Old Testament describes in a cultic way (Ex 25:8; 29:45; Lv 26:11), was promised for the end times (Ezk 37:26ff; Zec 2:14; Rev 21:3, 22ff), and is now fulfilled within the community. It is the presence of the Holy Trinity in the heart of the Christian, who is transformed into a living temple of God! Amidst the desert and the exodus of our history, God truly dwells in the tent and temple of the believer.